The Or are newcomers to the nearby region of space, having somehow displaced the Androsnth in the Vulpeculae constellation during only the last few years. The fate of the Androsynth is unknown.Physiologically, the Orz seem straightforward gill breathers, gathering dissolved gases from a strong ethanol solution.However, in terms of processes, the Orz are well... different. No known current technological device can accurately translate their language. The little that has been divined from contact with this race leads to a disturbing conclusion: they are not from this dimension. The Orz have somehow pushed through from... elsewhere. Although the natives of the Orz remain a mystery, there is a suggestion that the Ariloulaleelay may have some knowledge on the nature of this species.

So, they are collecting dissolved gases out of an ethanol solution they breath, using their gills.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The following is a transcript taken from the bridge of the H.M.S. Vindicator between Cancer and Camelopardalis, along with other transmissions from within Epsilon Camelopardalis. A temporal anomaly displacement has concluded that the events that occurred were reversed and have therefore never actually transpired, so the dates and times were difficult to ascertain and subsequently left omitted. Due to the necessity of being within Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah space (as well as Mycon for a substantial time) to be in close enough proximity to conduct surveillance and intercept their communications, but there has been much static and interference to contend with, so much of the content is garbled and indistinguishable and is notated accordingly as best as possible.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Entry 1 – Ship’s Galley:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Do you think ##### make it?”

“Ensign, we’ll definite## make it. It’s just a matter of how many of us will be left by the time we get there!”

We limp on… still on course towards Epsilon Camelopar#####. Over the past several days we’ve lost a good portion of our battle fleet to ###### engagements with the ##### #### and the Kohr-Ah. Both of the P-#### ###### and the Orz ships, along with the Lexington have ### been destroyed. The StarGazer is down to ten #### members and Fwiffo is about to have a nervous break####, since he is the #### one left on the Star######

The Vindicator is in bad shape as well, her engines #### been damaged due to the high stress of ###### warp-outs, and the shields ### still only operating at sixty percent efficiency. Hull integrity is holding at around seventy-#### percent, but our weapons array ## ## full power – they seem to function better the more we use them, and we’ve been using them often recent##

We’re still more than two ### # #### days away, and hopefully… ####fully we’ve seen the worst of it. Captain ###”--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Entry 3 – Vindicator Lander:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Are you done yet?”

“Just a sec#### The captain wants a full report. Have ### #### able to contact them?”

“No, I’m ##### working on it. There’s a lot of inter####### with the weather.”

“Not to mention how badly ######ications was damaged earlier. You should get through any minute. Keep at it Ensign.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Continue recording… We have found… on the surface of #### green moon, located ## ### ###### of the western hemisphere, a large, circular doorway –- exactly right where the Z.F.## said it would be. There is a #### panel on the #### but we don’t #### ### ## operate it. Hopefully the ###### will have the code… or a garage door opener or some#####”

“Hey Lieutenant!”

“Computer pause. What ## ## now?”

“Do you think ## ##### try to contact the Syreen shuttle instead? ## you think the captain would mind?”

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

Our mission certainly had some ups and downs, but I feel it was an overall success, since we were able to achieve many of our goals. We started off by trying to make contact with the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm in Procyon, but the only thing we found was an abandoned starbase, a slave-shielded homeworld, and plenty of Ilwrath... Not fun. In fact, this part of the mission doesn’t even really count since I used the time portal to put us back at Starbase. We’ll need a way to communicate past the Ur-Quan shielding technology, but we may already have found the solution to that little problem, since we believe the Chenjesu can meet us halfway.

We went to the Pkunk and had to trick them into turning around and head back home before they made it to Yehat space, where they would surely have been obliterated by the Starship Clans. As far as the Yehat go, before we had left starport I had optimistically anticipated that we would’ve been able to convince them to join our side, but I suppose I was absurdly wrong about that one; the Yehat are far too disheartened after the demise of the Shofixti, with a nod to Tanaka and ZEX’s maidens, who are obviously the key to restoring the Shofixti race as well as convincing the Yehat to join our fight for freedom. Speaking of Tanaka, the strange planet he mentioned turned out to be a Rainbow World, which the Melnorme pay handsomely for their locations.

After we encountered too much resistance in the Serpentis Constellation after wearing out our welcome in Yehat space, we moved on towards the Mycon, but not before checking out a few unexplored systems in VUX territory, where we luckily managed to locate the VUX homeworld, but not much else except lots of hostile Intruders trying to kill us.

As soon as we left there and entered Mycon space, as predicted, we started running into trouble and had many fierce battles with many Podship battle groups wherever we went, but we pressed on and thoroughly searched the entire region, and we eventually uncovered 3 Mycon Egg Cases in the process! We also found 2 worlds which were guarded by vast amounts of Podships: one in Epsilon Scorpii, and another in Beta Brahe, which is where Tanaka claimed the Mycon were testing some kind of device. We even found a second Rainbow World during out “Easter egg hunt”.

Unfortunately, during our journeys we suddenly discovered that the Spathi’s sphere of influence had completely vanished! Since we knew we had adequate proof to show the Syreen how the Mycon were responsible for the destruction of Syra, their homeworld, we travelled to Betelgeuse and I gave the tough fungal sacs to Talana, who realized the Mycon’s treachery and vowed to help us, but they need our help in finding their Penetrator starships, which have been locked away by the Ur-Quan in a vault near Betelgeuse, but at the time we didn’t know the location, just that they were nearby.

We continued on towards Spathi space, searching along the way for the secret vault, until we made it to Epsilon Gruis, where we found Spathiwa encased in a shiny new slave-shield. At first we thought that the Ur-Quan had learned about their alliance with us and were punishing them, but when we travelled to their former residence, the moon, we found a note explaining that the Spathi had reverse-engineered the slave-shield by studying the one surrounding Earth. Fortunately though, they also left behind for us the Umgah ’Caster that they had been studying and keeping out of the troublesome tentacles of the pranking blobs.

We resumed our search for the hidden vault, and made our way out to the Zoq-Fot-Pik homeworld in Alpha Tucanae, and we made a formal alliance with them. They also shared with us a report from one of their scouts, which had stumbled upon a large door on Epsilon Camelopardalis I-A, which is where the Syreen Penetrators are being kept. We were very low on fuel, so we used the Umgah’s powerful HyperWave Broadcaster to signal for the Melnorme, who swung by and fixed us up with a fill-up.

Unfortunately, we ran smack dab into both the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah along the way to the vault, and although we were able to gain additional insights to their Doctrinal Conflict, we were unable to make it there without facing severe casualties, so I used the time portal to put us back in Betelgeuse, and from there we headed home. We talked with the Orz for a short while when we travelled through Vulpecula, and we also stopped by to see if we could communicate with the people on Unzervalt using the Umgah ’Caster, but to no avail. We had no other stops or encounters for the remainder of the trip back to Starbase.

End of report.

Signed,

Captain Zelnick, commandingH.M.S. Vindicator and company fleetThe New Alliance of Free Stars--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

Commander Hayes let me know that the Zoq-Fot-Pik have arrived to assist in our struggle with the Ur-Quan, and they have sent over ZFP personnel to serve as captains on as many Stingers as we build, but I believe I can coax a few to serve aboard the Vindicator as well. However, there was also the bad news. As we already feared, every Spathi has vacated the premises (except the ones already serving alongside) which also means we can’t build any more Eluder starships for our fleet. Sneaky little bastards.

The Starbase Science Teams also analyzed all of the additional items and artifacts we’ve acquired on our last mission, including the Syreen Pilot Shuttle, but whenever we sent in somebody to investigate the interior of the shuttle, they never seems to return. Hmmm… maybe I’ll have to look into the matter personally before we leave starport.

The Umgah ’Caster is definitely strong enough to be used for practical jokes in the manner in which the Umgah used it, since it’s similar to our own HyperWave broadcasters, but much more powerful, and Hayes informed us we could use it in HyperSpace, but he couldn’t be sure who would come by to see who’s calling, but we already know that the Melnorme will recognize its signal and will suddenly show up out of nowhere… somehow. Curious.

They also examined all three of our Mycon Egg Cases, and they are all rather large, which makes Hayes wonder how large the organism must be that hatches out of it, but I’m thinking it actually may be many, numerous small lifeforms instead that hatch once the object is safe and secure underneath the planet’s crust and they can slip into hot mantle and begin the violent terraforming process.

Now that resource units aren’t much of an issue anymore, I've decided we should outfit the Vindicator to be armed to the teeth, especially since many of the places we need to explore could be swarming with potential danger and hostile aliens with Ur-Quan and the like.

Furthermore, now that we’ve become aware that we can signal for the Melnorme if we’re nowhere close to any supergiant star systems, I’ve decided to go down to only one fuel tank, and all four of our cargo bays have also been removed.

Therefore, we have a full weapons array, including 3 Hellbore Cannons in the front and another in the rear for good measure! We’ve also installed 3 Auto-Tracking Systems to assist with the accuracy of our weapon systems, as well as 3 Dynamos and 3 Shiva Furnaces to keep our recharge rate up to snuff. That should give those Kohr-Ah something to think about the next time they decide to tango with us!

We’re going to keep our fleet intact the way it was in our previous mission, with the only exception being the addition of 2 Zoq-Fot-Pik Stingers, the H.M.S. Hornet and Wasp, under the command of captains TikTok and ZipZak, respectively. We’ll keep the other two slots open, just in case the Pkunk or some other race wants to give us ships to add to our fleet.

Which brings us to our current problem. The stubborn Pkunk are once again on their pilgrimage to reunite with their Yehat brethren, unaware that the only thing they’ll find there is death and destruction (although I’ve repeatedly tried to warn them). The main thing that concerns me though is that they’ll probably try again later after I've once again convinced them to turn around through some clever trickery, but then we’ll get faced with the same problem several months down the road… and I’m running out of excuses to prevent the Pkunk from completing their journey!

I’ll finish up my meetings with Commander Hayes and the senior staff, and we’ll wait for crew transfers and drydock to finish constructing our new ships and making the final modifications to the Vindicator before we head out on our next mission.

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

To be honest, that tailgun is pretty useless. With maxxed out thrusters and turning jets, the Vindicator is extremely maneuverable, and you're going to have that forward spread pointed at any threats very quickly. The odds of that rear shot curling around and hitting a target, while not zero, are pretty slim and don't make up for the power consumption that another Hellbore will eat up. You would be better served with either another fuel tank or crew pod, either of which will help even a dedicated warship far more in the long run.

Four Hellbores and three ATS's? O_o I wonder how much power per shot that uses...

It definitely consumes a lot of energy; it’s tough for even the 3 dynamos and furnaces to keep up!

Draxas wrote:

To be honest, that tailgun is pretty useless. With maxxed out thrusters and turning jets, the Vindicator is extremely maneuverable, and you're going to have that forward spread pointed at any threats very quickly. The odds of that rear shot curling around and hitting a target, while not zero, are pretty slim and don't make up for the power consumption that another Hellbore will eat up. You would be better served with either another fuel tank or crew pod, either of which will help even a dedicated warship far more in the long run.

You’re right. From a conventional standpoint it would be better to eliminate a weapon that usually won’t be aimed at the enemy anyway, and the only time it would be beneficial is for when an enemy vessel is approaching from the rear and you want them to deal with something while the Vindicator gains speed to achieve max velocity, but sometimes this will result in “faking out” the enemy while you’re moving away from them, since the computer will often react to incoming fire by veering away, and you can perform the same maneuver once the target re-emerges on the other side of the screen, or blast them with a full spread as they close the distance. It can be versatile, but at the expense of massive energy depletion.

I considered the extra fuel tank, since it may prove to be annoying to seek out the Melnorme anytime I need their assistance, but at least the Umgah caster will expedite that quickly enough to justify the additional available module. The same pretty much goes for the extra crew pod, since apparently none of my crew ever dies anyway.

However, I have 2 big reasons for my juiced-up Spathi B.U.T.T. cannon, and the first is plain and simple: Laziness. There, I said it… Those stink-o Probes have become such a constant nuisance that I’ve grown tired of battling them. I’ve gotten to the point where most of the time I keep the settings on Cyborg, so the computer can handle up on my light work while I focus on more pressing matters.

I’ve already taken the liberty of testing the weapon’s set-up out in combat and, surprisingly enough, often times when the AI Vindicator defeats a probe, it does so with involvement from the rear cannon shot, and I’ve even recently seen a probe take simultaneous impact from a bolt from the front and rear, since the computer handles the flagship very frivolously and is always spinning around and stuff.

Which brings us to my second reason, which is even simpler than the first: It looks cool! I mean, just look at this ultimate warship setup:

Isn't that just awesome-looking? (I kinda wish the rear cannon would face the opposite direction though )

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

We have just left starport and are about ready to enter HyperSpace once we reach the edge of the system. Our heading is going to take us towards Yehat space, but we're planning on stopping before we actually reach their sphere of influence, which will place us at coordinates {417.0:032.9}. My plan is to park our ship out in empty space and wait for the Pkunk to arrive to see how long it takes them to travel here, although science and navigation report that the Pkunk should arrive in our vicinity towards the end of April, assuming they hold course and speed, and if we are unable to trick them into turning around, they would make it to Gamma Serpentis by June 17th, which is when and where we assume they would be absorbed by the Yehat forces. Man, those science and navigation guys are very skilled at their computations to give me such a precise date! Since it will take about 3 months for the Pkunk to arrive, I'll be placing myself in the cryogenic chamber until June. Until that time, the ship and crew will be given the task of defending the position outside of Yehat territory from any probes or other vessels.

The Pkunk arrived in the area, and the doctor promptly revived me. We opened communications with a small Pkunk patrol, but I decided to not use our ploy to deceive them into turning around... not yet anyway. After we spoke with them briefly and failed to persuade them to turn around by practical reasoning, we set course outward and away from the direction the Pkunk were moving; that way we can observe their movement as they enter Yehat space, but without quite as many direct encounters.

I have placed a time portal and we will continue to monitor their progress. In the meantime, I'm going back to sleep. Captain out.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Captain's Log - Jun 17, 2157 - HyperSpace {392.1:24.1}

Damn. It would appear that all of the Pkunk are dead. As soon as their migration fleet entered Gamma Serpentis, their entire sphere of influence disappeared!! I don't even want to imagine the massive wall of destruction the Pkunk encountered as they naively approached the Yehat homeworld, singing songs and with flowers in their hair (or scruffy head feathers), only to find themselves subjected to an onslaught of pulse cannons and pterodactyl terror. According to our sensors, their entire flock of furies were cut down, seemingly instantaneously, so we know that the level of devastation must've been astronomically brutal and without mercy, as well as swift and exact... The Yehat are formidable warriors. I could reverse the events by using the time portal, but I believe there may be more we can learn.

We are approaching the planet… but I fear the worst. THIS is not a good sign:

We will continue towards the planet while avoiding the Ilwrath along the way. Captain out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Captain’s Log – Supplemental:

There was no greeting party around orbit of the Pkunk homeworld, indicating that the Ilwrath seized the opportunity to attack whatever Pkunk chose to stay behind, including the Pkunk leaders. Besides the pair in our fleet, I haven’t seen a single Fury since we’ve arrived.

I was fairly optimistic when we entered orbit that there would at least be a remnant of the Pkunk population left behind, and our planetary sensors detected energy signatures on the planet surface, so we sent down a Lander to investigate...

But alas, it would appear the Ilwrath are very thorough. The Pkunk were no match for the large wave of Avengers that swept through the system with fire and devastation; it looks like they obeyed Dogar and Kazon to the letter and didn’t even bother to occupy the surface of the homeworld to perform sick, tortuous acts on the population. The Kohr-Ah would be proud… right before they would in-turn annihilate the Ilwrath, that is.

I will activate the time portal here shortly to undo this mess and turmoil. Zelnick out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

Ok, so we're going for a different approach this time. We've obviously learned the hard way that if we sit on our hands and do nothing, the Pkunk will meet their demise in pretty short order. The only question remains is... If we get them to turn around, what's to prevent them from turning around again? And what then? Will they start to listen to reason the third time around?... Or will they still remain firm in their resolve for reunification with their killer cousins? We shall see.

We have set course for coordinates {209.5:059.4} which will place us barely upspin of Gamma Ptolemae. From there, we'll probably be inside the Pkunk's circle of pelicans enough to quickly detect and intercept them... or at least a small group of them. Captain out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Captain's Log - Feb 3, 2157 - HyperSpace {186.4:046.2} - Near Zeta Ptolemae

We have successfully been able to once again convince the Pkunk to turn around and go home! It took some doing, but we discovered that the Vindicator's sophisticated Precursor computer had downloaded a ton of information about the Pkunk when we had visited their homeworld. According to some information we obtained from the Pkunk cultural database, there are references to several different astrological events that the Pkunk have regarded as having significant influence on space and time, as well as an individual's fortune. Intriguing.

Sifting through the numerous astrology guides (most of which were trivial and otherwise unimportant) our communication's officer discovered one particular event called "The Year of the Swollen Moon" which occurs once every... uh, once every... well, according to her rough translation of the ancient text, it says it occurs once every 38 thousand rotations of the 3rd planet in the realm of Farty Plum, but AFTER the second alignment of the awe-inspiring constellation of Sib Sib with the heavenly body of Smahla's Stool Sample, which of course is really only a 3/4 alignment. In other words, we have no idea! Fortunately, we're pretty sure the Pkunk don't know when either, but they're still aware of the importance of the event, since we managed to convince them that this is the year of the infamous Swollen Moon, which coincidentally just so happens to warn against travelling this time of year!

And with that... they turned around and headed home, so I'll be returning to the cryogenic chamber while the Pkunk return home. Zelnick out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Captain's Log - Mar 25, 2157 - HyperSpace {151.4:095.6} - Near Alpha Centauri

The Pkunk have made it home. As they travelled back through Ptolemy, we started encountering them quite often, so we repositioned ourselves outside of Alpha Centauri so we could observe the Pkunk's movements without constant conversation. However, during one of our talks they told us to venture out to their homeworld where we would receive more Fury vessels to add to our fleet, so I think we'll see the Melnorme and top off our tanks before heading out that way so we can resume the experiment.

After refueling in Alpha Centauri, we proceeded to Gamma Krueger and we've arrived at the Pkunk homeworld just moments ago.

We were given, as promised, several Pkunk Fury starships to add to our fleet! They probably would've given us four like they did previously, but since we only had two open slots, that was all we could receive, but we now have a total of four Pkunk ships again! They even told us if we returned after a year that they’d give us more ships!

We will return to the edge of Yehat space and await to see if and when the Pkunk will attempt another migration... and if we can stop them! We will set course for the direction of Capella. Zelnick out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” - Khan Noonien Singh

As you can guess, the reasons for their migration will again remain unaltered, and they'll await the end of the Year of the Swollen Moon, just to be safe.However, we do not know how long a Year of the Swollen Moon is.It might better to follow other leads. Like persuading the Yehat to not kill the Pkunk when they come. You have received some leads in that direction.Appeal to the honour of the proud warriors. Your previous tries in that regard gave you some information on the persuading reason(s) they might need.

But sitting like a duck in the cryogenic chamber will not solve the other leads into information you may be able to use for your penultimate goal, the liberation of Earth and the defeat of the Ur-Quan.(Even though you will never have sat in the cryogenic chamber after all. But later you will still need to fly up and down the local sector of the galaxy to solve crisis happening, and knowing how often you may find persuasive reasons to ask the Pkunk to abort their homecoming may not be as helpful as you think.)(In my very first game, I sent them back home ONCE, after that I was able to finish during their second migration.)

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